7QT with Some of my Favorite Funny People

1)

There are so many days that I don't have time to snack between meals, and even more days that I don't eat meat, but when Ash Wednesday comes and it's all of a sudden a requirement, I'm all "Gimme meat and snacks!":

2)

It's getting a little bit overwhelming preparing for this baby and my maternity leave.  Mostly the maternity leave, the baby doesn't need much in terms of preparation.  There's notes to leave and people to train and lots of very important things to think about that need to be done by others while I'm away.  Oh and then there's that hospital bag and the kid's overnight bags that still need packing, and the house to keep clean, and the legs to keep shaved, and the fridge to keep full, and wow does my bed look super comfy...

3)

As the due day is getting closer (16 days!), this is Phil's job:

4)

Today is First Friday and it's also the 9th First Friday since my Pastor motivated/challenged us to complete the Nine First Friday Novena.  The promises from this novena are awesome and I can't believe we actually were able to accomplish it!!  The coolest part is that back on the 1st First Friday in July, I was pregnant but didn't know it yet, and now I'm about to give birth, so this novena completely lined up with these 9 months of pregnancy.  So amazing, it makes me want to do a happy dance:

5)

My one and only craving this whole time has been cottage cheese, I would eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner if I could.  Then all of a sudden this week, cottage cheese tastes nasty to me.  Phil says "so you've come back to reality now" (because everybody else thinks cottage cheese is gross).  Is he right?

6)

I got my first mean comment this week.  I don't mind comments that disagree or try to convince me of something, but this one was just mean, written by the oh-so-brave Anonymous telling me to get a tubal ligation because we had too many kids.  

I was mad, then sad, then all:

7)

To everyone who is asking me if I'm ready, if anything is happening, if I have any feelings as to when the baby is going to come, if I have a premonition of the gender...I have to say:

As my midwife just told me at the last appointment "babies come on their birthday".

I do know everyone means well and is just being nice and supportive, truly I do and I do the same thing to my pregnant friends :)

Have a wonderful Spring Ahead weekend everybody!

Phat Tuesday

Giving a whole new meaning to Fat Tuesday...

Wow, where did THAT come from???

I don't even care, because only 19 days left!  19 days!!

Winning at Failing

When I heard about Jen's 7 posts in 7 days challenge, I didn't jump on the bandwagon right away because thoughts and speaking and writing have been a little more challenging lately.  So many times a day,  I say things like "What's the word for when you take in oxygen and then let out carbon dioxide"?  Oh yes, breathing.  That's what I need to be doing right now.  It's pathetic.   But then I thought, well I usually post about 5 times a week, so how hard can 7 be?  And so I signed myself up and then came Saturday and Sunday and I realized that I hate blogging on weekends because it's when we actually have good family time.  Time to be living in the moment and enjoying my real life peeps that I don't see enough of during the week.  So even though I feel kind of bad about failing the bloggy challenge, I sort of feel like I had a personal victory after all.  I would have missed all these small moments...

Eamon: Mom, everyone is going to see that picture and think I like to read about Dora!!

Xander needs "help on the potty" which translates to someone reading a book to him.

This boy has always been our puzzle lover.  So unlike his mother and father.

Maggie lost two teeth over the last 5 days!

On the way to Mass today, we passed a pink VW bug and I said, "Wow look at that pink car!" to which Phil responded "hastag midlife crisis" and we laughed.  John-Paul (newly turned 11) was listening in the back seat and told us that kids in his class were saying "hashtag" all the time and he didn't get it.  Do you know how hard it is to explain why we talk this way?  I think we got it through to him, although in our fumbling explanations, I realized exactly how silly it was.  "We're going to be early to Mass", I said and J-P responded "hashtag that never happens" so yeah, he got it.  And we've created a #monster.

MY PARENTS ARE BACK!  This means I can now go into labor :)  So I will be starting any and all natural induction techniques next weekend, once I'm 38 weeks.  Pineapple, reflexology, walking more than usual, and as my midwife says "visits with my husband".  I know babies come easier when it's on their own terms, but I like to pretend I'm doing something to help.  I'll never learn.  I just finished re-reading my Bradley book and blushing at all the photos in there, so I feel a little more ready to tackle this labor.

I went to Confession this weekend just to cross my t's and dot my i's before the baby comes, and it was one of those "easy" Confessions where the priest is so sweet and kind but doesn't offer any earth-shattering advice, and also didn't really give me a Penance.  I left hoping it was valid, and knowing that God would still provide the graces.  The one thing he did tell me was to listen carefully to the Gospel this weekend.  OK, easy enough.  Turns out the Gospel reading was actually the same one Phil and I chose for our wedding!  We chose it specifically because we were young (ahem21and23)and didn't know what the future would hold for us, but we knew how much we loved each other and how much we loved God and that it would all work out somehow.

Matthew 6: 24 - 34

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"No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.  "Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor about your body, what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?  Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?  And which of you by being anxious can add one cubit to his span of life?  And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.  But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O men of little faith?  Therefore do not be anxious, saying, `What shall we eat?' or `What shall we drink?' or `What shall we wear?'  For the Gentiles seek all these things; and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.  But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well.  "Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day's own trouble be sufficient for the day.

What an awesome reminder for me who worries a bit too much over things I can not control.  So it turns out that the Confession was way better than I thought.  God is so good!